Untitled article by A. F. BALLENGER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · October 23, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 42

THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

By A. F. BALLENGER

The following petition is now being circulated in the city, by the Woman’s Moral and Educational Union, and thousands of signatures are being secured:—

To the Honorable Board of Education of the City of Chicago.

Petition for the Reading of the Bible in the Public Schools.

WHEREAS, the Bible is the great fountain of public and private morals, and contains the most exalted literature ever produced;—and,

WHEREAS, the effect of reading appropriate extracts therefrom, to and by the pupils in the public schools, would be to elevate their minds, and strengthen their moral character,

Therefore, The undersigned citizens of Chicago respectfully pray that the proper order may be made to require the reading of such extracts in the opening exercises each day, of all departments of the public schools in Chicago.

The undersigned regard the claim that such reading would be an infringement of just personal or religious liberty, as wholly destitute of merit, and insist that such reading would still leave the mind and conscience of every pupil entirely free from any improper bias.

Name. Address.

At a meeting of the Methodist ministers of the city, held October 6, the movement was indorsed. Several prominent clergymen of the city are opposed to the movement, among them Rev. H. J. Jackson, of the Mansfield Avenue Methodist Church; Rev. William Lawrence, of the Independent Baptist Church; and Rev. John L. Withrow, of the Third Presbyterian Church.

A committee waited on Archbishop Freehan to secure his indorsement of the movement. They took with them a copy of a book of Scriptural extracts, which read alike in both the King James and the Douay versions, used in the schools of Toronto, Canada, and asked the Archbishop if he would agree to such a compromise in Chicago schools. He replied that the conditions here were different and that he could not indorse the proposition. They called also on Rabbi Hersch, who refused to sign the petition and promised to give his reasons in writing.

Some of the agitators are willing to select their quotations from the Old Testament only, in deference to the Jews. They go even further, and state that they are willing to confine the selections read, to the Proverbs, that both the Catholics and the Jews may be satisfied. No attention is paid to the views of infidels.

Without doubt the majority of those who are agitating this question are actuated by the purest of motives. They see the moral degeneracy of the rising generation, and in casting about for a remedy they decide that the Bible read in the public schools is one, and not following the logic of the movement to its legitimate conclusion, they, with more heart than wisdom, enthusiastically set out to accomplish their object. That they are wofully in error concerning the province of civil government, is shown from the position taken by the president of the Union, in conversation with your correspondent. “I am opposed,” said she, “to teaching sectarianism in our public schools, but there is a national Christianity upon which all can agree. The Government establishes a standard of weights and measures, and for the same reason should establish a standard of religion.”

Your correspondent is more than ever convinced that THE AMERICAN SENTINEL has entered upon its mission none too soon. These movements are but the vanguard of a large and rapidly organizing army, or as one of the editors of the Chicago Evening Journal stated it, “They are the ripples on the surface of a great sea.”

We will speak of the agitation to close the World’s Fair on Sunday, in our next.

A. F. BALLENGER.